Trump lawyers meet with DOJ after ex-president slams indictment speculation

Donald Trump’s lawyers met Monday morning with Justice Department officials, a day after the former president noted speculation that special counsel Jack Smith was moving closer to seeking to indict him.

NBC News confirmed that Trump’s lawyers met Monday with officials at DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C., after CBS News tweeted a photo of three lawyers entering the building. Attorneys John Rowley, James Trusty and Lindsey Halligan left the DOJ shortly before noon ET but declined to comment, NBC reported.

The meeting did not include Attorney General Merrick Garland or Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, according to NBC.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment to NBC about the hearing.

Smith investigated Trump on two separate occasions.

One relates to Trump’s retention of government documents, many of them classified, at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida when he left the White House, and possible obstruction of justice in thwarting the recovery of that material by the National Archives and records.

NBC reported Saturday that a federal grand jury that heard evidence in the case is expected to resume proceedings this week in Washington.

Trump, in a social media post on Sunday, wrote: “Reports are that the Marxist Special Counsel, DOJ and FBI want to charge me with the BOXES HOAX despite all the wrongdoing they have done for SEVEN YEARS, including SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN.”

Smith’s other investigation centers on efforts by Trump and his allies, including his campaign lawyers, to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden and effectively block confirmation of Biden’s victory in the Electoral College by a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.

Trump, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is also being criminally investigated by a state attorney in Atlanta for his efforts to get Georgia officials to overturn Biden’s victory in that state in 2020. Georgia was one of several states which Biden won, sealing his electoral college victory.

Trump was indicted in March by a New York grand jury in an indictment accusing him of falsifying business records related to a secret payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to a porn star shortly before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in that case, which is due to go to trial next March, in the middle of the presidential primary season.

He is the only US president, former or otherwise, to have ever been criminally indicted.